Despite All Precedent
by thelandofthenutty
Summary: Set in Santos' 3rd State of the Union. Donna never worked for the Santos Campaign, and she and Josh haven't spoken since 'the ticket'. Who is it that is destroying Josh on National TV? A Josh and Donna fic, with hints at SamAinsley. r


**Disclaimer: i dont own west wing **

**A/N: This is set the night of Santos' third state of the union. Donna never worked for Santos, and she and Josh never got together. Everything else happened just as it is, but Donna and Josh never spoke after 'The Ticket'. Here goes. Sorry about the vagueness on policy, I'm not up on American politics, all I know I have from West Wing. Note how much self control it took not to make the director of legislative affairs too evil, and to not comment on her creepy eyes even once. Read and review. **

**Toodles, Jess. **

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"And I will go, and I will dazzle them with my wit and ideas, you know why Sam?"

"Because you're an ideas man?" Sam suggested, trying to get a sentence of warning in between Josh's self promoting statements, as they walked briskly through the familiar halls of the West Wing.

"Yes indeed. It's a good night Sam. We're having a good night, and I am going to go out there and I'm going to sweep the floor with whatever half arsed floopy looking politician or tu tu wearing republican that they throw at me-"

"Yeah about that, it's not a republican that your in discussion with…"

"Who is it?"

Sam gave him a wary look, and then continued, before he could begin talking too much again.

"Well she's a professional political operative whose been helping the democrats in California, and she's going to argue with you on the new increases, marriage incentives and probably on foreign policy."

Sam told him, with an air of delicacy that had Josh cocking an eyebrow and giving him a look full of wide eyes.

"And you wont tell me what you're worried about because-"

"Because I want you to be nice to her when your out there, despite all…precedent."

"I know her?"

"You could say that. You could probably say it a few times actually."

"I don't-"

"It's Donna Josh. You're going to be speaking on National television with Donna, and you're going to be nice, not cotton candy dancing through tulips nice, because you cant make us look weak, but you're not going to be, well…you."

"Hey! I'll have you know I'm a very nice- I can be…since when did you start telling me what to do? Donna?? I'm talking to-"

"I think I've always told you what to do."

"Ok, but since when have I actually listened?" Josh asked, as they came to a halt next to the set of Capital Beat, and Josh tried to straighten his tie. A tall woman with brown hair came bustling up to him, and handed him a folder, before knocking his hands away from his tie.

"Let me, you're messing it up." the woman said, in an exasperated voice. Sam raised an eyebrow at the lady, and watched as she straightened him up. Josh was looking over her shoulder, but couldn't seem to see past her to whatever he was looking for.

"You're going to do fine, stop looking so nervous." she told him, before giggling in a manner which Sam could only describe as annoying, and bouncing off down the hall.

It had to be his tenth assistant since he had been the White House Chief of Staff. Josh had a problem 'finding one who was good enough' which always made the President understandably curious, and Sam scoff.

She moved, however, and revealed the large, rounded desk at which the interview would be conducted, and someone who Josh hadn't spoken to in four years. Sam was yet to notice Donna, however.

"How long before you fire her?" he asked Josh, sticking his hands in his pockets and smirking slightly at his friend. Josh replied with only a dead sort of sound which emitted from his throat when he opened his mouth.

Sam followed his gaze, and patted his shoulder encouragingly. Donna, who had been watching the interaction between Josh and his assistant, had looked away before she had moved to mask the fact that she knew him at all.

"That's the way . Just say exactly that when you're out there and you'll do fine!" He said, walking back down to the bullpen, where the rest of the staff were celebrating the state of the union, and watching Capital Beat on the televisions.

Josh took a deep breathe, ran his hand through his hair, so that it was unnecessarily rumpled, at a very inconvenient time, and placed himself down in the seat one away from Donna, giving her a curt nod which caused her to look away, vexed. The host of Capital Beat placed himself between them.

"Josh, how've you been?" he inquired curtly before they went on air, shuffling the papers before him. Josh was sure to reply louder than usual.

"I've been terrific, never been better actually." he lied, more enthusiastically forced than the moderator had expected. Donna scoffed inwardly, but showed no signs of being angered by his ignorance of her.

"Good evening, I'm Mike Carlsdon, and this is Capital Beat, Live from the White House on this state on the union night. I'm here tonight with White House Chief of Staff Josh Lyman, and the Californian Democratic Policy Advisor Donna Moss. Donna, Josh, welcome."

Their eyes met briefly as they acknowledged the host, but they looked back to the camera quickly baring large smiles, smiles which Sam and the White House Legislative Director, back in the bullpen, could tell were blatantly synthetic.

"Before the night's out I say we lock the pair of them in a closet until they make out and make up." Amy whispered in a low voice, sipping at the drink in her hand. Sam gave her a surprised look.

"What's got you so interested?" he asked, knowing the history way too well. Amy fixed him with a stare.

"I lost money to Lou on the poll results tonight, so I'm winning it back on these two and besides…"she looked back at the television screens, unsmiling. "Their stupidity has always disgusted me."

Sam chuckled.

"To be fair I think you did your fair share of disgus-"

"Shut up." she said, shortly, smiling at Sam, and walking off down the hall with a scheming glint in her eyes. Sam couldn't help but smile, and continue watching. Mike Carlsdon was speaking to Josh and Donna still, and it didn't seem like they'd began with the substance yet.

"I believe you both worked in the White House when Bartlett was president." he was saying. "Did your paths cross?" the host joked, not understanding the bitter awkwardness that stretched across the room.

Donna opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out.

Great, the first thing she had to say on television and she couldn't even get a word out. He wasn't meant to have that sort of effect on her anymore. Then again, Josh had never exactly rendered her speechless. Usually when she got too smitten she talked even more, about even less.

Josh was, however, quick to reply.

"Yeah, we knew each other, but Donna was just an assistant then." He replied, giving her a glance, and then smiling back at Mike, gingerly.

Donna was trying to resist the urge to retort with something about him still being an egotistical arse, but she bit her tongue, and gave a polite laugh.

"I don't think we're here to talk about that Mike, I think we're here to talk about the way that Mr Lyman is screwing the tax payers with the lack of disclosure on the new education plan…."she said, quickly, continuing at a rapid pace, spilling out facts and figures which left Josh a little shell shocked, and then occasionally leaving an opportunity for him to reply, only to squash him again.

Back in the Head Counsels office, Sam snorted a laugh.

"I think Amy might not be getting her money from Lou just yet…" he commented, smiling regretfully, and taking a sip from his beer. His feet were on the desk, and Ainsley lifted it to make them slide off, and continued to walk back and forward, her own drink sitting on the table.

"What Donna's saying has merit Sam." she said, striding backwards and forwards, her office now considerably larger than the Steam Pipe Trunk distribution venue, and the fact that she liked what Donna was saying having considerably more weight than when she had been working from the lowest floor of the White House.

"I mean even if all it means is that we have to be more active with getting the message out about why there is an end to teacher tenure, and why the cost has gotten so much larger…"

"Ainsley, you're a republican, how is it that you-"

"Because what she's saying makes sense Sam, and if she says it tonight everyone will be saying it in the morning, so we should have something to counter it."

"Oh no…"Sam said, staring at the TV.

"No, it's going to be fine, we haven't done anything wrong in-"

"No-" Sam was quietening her with his hands, and Ainsley looked at the TV screen over his shoulder, taking a sip of her own drink.

"…because we made a promise that we would do this, right from the start, we always promised this, and when you're in something here you're in it for the long run, it's called loyalty."

Donna gave him a stare.

"I'm all for loyalty Josh, but you might want to try ironing out some of the-"

"And we will, but not at the moment."

"-Because next year you're in an election and you don't want to face this tonight."

Josh gave her a withering stare, and Mike realised they were treading on some rocky ground for a show that was coming live from the Santos White House. Debate was good, but they were getting awfully close to being negative.

He took it to a break, and Josh deflated slightly, loosening his tie.

"Don't loosen it, you'll look scruffy." Donna told him, shortly, from across the table. Not looking at him directly. She could only see him out of the corner of her eye, but she knew what he was doing. Josh froze, and then, trying to be as inconspicuous and non committal as he could, restraightened his tie.

Amy walked into the ballroom where the party was going on. She was dressed in a red gown and spotted CJ and Danny speaking across the other side of the room, more relaxed than the former Chief of Staff had ever been at a State of the Union.

"Hey." she said, greeting them with a smile, "Care to wagger on the outcome of the Capital Beat segment, either of you? I'm down twenty tonight, throw me a bone, my reputations at risk." she told them in an upbeat drawl, a grin on her face. CJ gave Amy a strange look, and Danny's eyebrows flew up.

"Why, whose on Capital Beat?" she asked, intrigued. The corner of Amy's mouth curled upwards.

"The Chief of Staff and a particularly sassy former white house staffer with a lot of anger to vent." she relied. Danny tilted his head sideways, and CJ looked equally confused.

"Donna's kicking Josh's arse on national television, seriously, it's good TV." she explained plainly, brushing her hair from her face and gulping down a drink.

CJ and Danny similarly swallowed the rest of their own and nodded towards the door.

"Why didn't you come get us sooner?" he asked, humored, as they headed towards a TV.

The nearest was in Sam's office. When Sam and Ainsley opened the door ten minutes later CJ was spread out on the couch that was along the wall with the blackboard, Danny perched on the arm of it, his knees holding up CJ's head, and Amy was sitting backwards in his chair.

Sam stood in the door.

"You comfortable?" he asked, trying not to laugh, as they walked in, eyes on the TV. Everyone shushed him but CJ.

"You were too slow for the couch boy, and this is funnier than you two on Crossfire." she said, her eyes not leaving the screen, but a smile appearing on her face, and her hand reaching out to grab Sam's. Sam squeezed it back in greeting. It wasn't often that CJ was in town.

Sam hit Ainsley lightly on the arm with his folder in mock anger.

"What was that for?" she asked, sitting herself cross legged on his desk.

"For slaughtering me on a TV more than a decade ago. Was that a legitimate enough reason?"

"No."

"Well then I just felt like hitting you."

"Better."

Everyone else shushed them, and Donna's voice filled the room.

"But that's exactly the point , it's the point you keep avoiding actually. We don't have a treaty with any of those countries yet, we want a treaty, but you cant just assume that another country thinks the same way as you do, or feels the same way as you do about a particular issue, which is what you're doing when you presume that every other country in the world is going to agree with something we do." she said, quickly, and left Josh with his mouth opening and shutting. Their half an hour was almost up, and Amy smirked.

"They'll be debating the subtle complexities of that one for years my friends." she said, sneering, "Place your bets now people, they're coming off air any minute."

"You think one of us is going to seriously bet _against_ Josh and Donna?" Ainsley asked, perplexed. Sam laughed, and headed for the door. He was meant to be meeting Josh as he came off.

"Seven years and they didn't have anything done, who says an extra three apart should have done anything?" he asked, before heading out. Ainsley watched him leave, and then turned to CJ.

"Well now they have ten years of sexual tension to stifle instead of seven, but that sort of thing is lost on Sam, so I think Amy'll win this one hands down." Ainsley replied, even though Sam had left already.

Sam stood at the other side of the interview, just off camera as they wound up the segment. Josh sat in the chair, as though he had been clubbed over the head with something hard for a moment, while Donna stood abruptly, obviously planning on leaving as soon as possible. She walked off the other side of the set, and handed her papers to an assistant, walking rushed down the hallway.

Sam walked on the set, and hauled Josh up from the chair.

"There you are! That wasn't…so bad…"

"She wiped the floor with me. Since when has Donna been smarter than me?" he asked, dumbstruck.

"Josh, she was always smarter than you."

"Yeah, alright, that I'll take, but since when has she been smarter than me on nationally broadcast television?"

"That's a totally new thing…"

"I'll say."

"Ironically this was what I was least scared of when they told me who you were-"

"You knew?"

"Yeah."

"You knew I was speaking with Donna and you didn't tell me?"

"I suppose if you want to get all glass is half empty about it…"

"I could have braced myself, I could have been prepared, I could have been sick."

"On the night of the state of the union?"

"You still don't seem to understand that I'm your boss. I could send you on a special assignment to the middle of the Australian desert and you wouldn't be able to complain."

"Oh I could complain, you just wouldn't be able to hear me from down there."

"Sam-"

"Josh relax. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, that as a bad move, but think of it this way. You never have to speak to her again now. It's over. You faced Donna and you survived. You no longer are in need of closure. You never have to see her again."

Josh seized up.

"What is it?" Sam asked, knowing full well that what he had said had done just what it was intended to do.

Possibility scared the hell out of the Chief Of Staff. A lack of possibility, however, frightened him worse than anything, and Sam was always one with the words.

"This is my last chance, isn't it?" Josh asked, realization coming over him. His mind was reeling. She was no longer his assistant, and they had both demonstrated fairly clearly to the country that they were no longer best friends. There was nothing standing in his way but a decade of unspoken words and a lot of years of imagining what might have been.

Josh bounded from the room with renewed vigor and raced down he hallway the way Donna had left. She was walking through the bullpen when he saw her, and he pulled her into Lou's office- Lou was out at the party anyway, and left the door swinging open, turning on the light.

"What are you doing?" Donna squealed, appalled, as he dragged her by the arm into the office that had once been Toby Ziegler's. Josh's breathing was heavy but rhythmic, and he was looking very serious.

"I wasn't going to let you leave without talking. How've you been?" he asked, gently. Donna eyed him defiantly.

"I think we just talked for about half an hour Josh, I don't know what you call talking, but-"

"The only part that was you talking was when you told me to fix my tie!" he argued.

"No Josh, the only part of me that sounded like 'just an assistant' was me telling you to fix your tie. The rest of it still classifies as talking." she told him evenly, standing with her arms folded, and her eyes wild.

Josh's mouth opened slightly in comprehension.

"Oh." he emitted, quietly. "That's what you're mad about, I didn't mean-"

"Just an assistant. I love it that you thought of me as just as assistant. It makes it easier to understand why you haven't been in touch in four years, really, it does."

"I didn't mean it like that, I meant compared to whatever the hell it is you are now, and what do you mean not contacted you in four years, where were all your phone calls?"

CJ, Danny, Amy, and Ainsley slunk into Bram's office, watching them through the window in the dark.

Donna was mad now.

"My phone calls were there in the campaign when you wouldn't hire me even though most of the Russell campaign were working for you!"

Josh was silent. He surveyed her face. She looked amazing, he had to admit. She appeared taller, though he was sure that was just the new air of confidence- the confidence which had, incidentally, been hurt by his televised hit at her former occupation. Her hair was shinny and hung around her shoulders in layers, her eyes coated in makeup and her forehead covered with a fringe that looped down to her brow.

Josh was silent. And he had been that way for a couple of minutes, watching Donna as she melted a little.

"You looked amazing." he told her, truthfully, but she didn't crack a smile. There was a pause in which Sam approached the door, and stood waiting in the door frame unseen, wanting to put something on Lou's desk, and about to look for the others again. He was unaware of them trying desperately to lip read through the glass wall.

"I was engaged." she told him, quietly.

"Really?" Josh asked, sounding surprised though his voice caught in his throat. "I didn't know that."

Sam made a humored noise from his inconspicuous position in the doorway, and he walked in the room, shutting the door behind him, and hugging Donna in greeting, having not seen his old friend properly in years.

"Didn't know that." he mocked loudly, and then whispered so that only Donna can hear him. "You're just lucky that it was my doorstep he honored with his drunkenness the evening the papers announced that gem." he revealed, making Donna grin in spite of herself. He stepped back, and received a withering stare from Josh.

"I only came in here to leave the memo for Lou." he said, laying it on the desk and holding his hands up defensively. He looked over their shoulders and caught sight of the four in the other office, who ducked, quickly. He sighed, and turned, just as he was about to leave.

"…And to tell you that for two people as smart as yourselves ten years is a long time to be stupid." he added, causing Josh to anger again.

"Hey Sam! I forgot, tomorrow I need someone to liaise with head counsel-"

"I'll do it." Sam answered quickly, as Josh had intended. He smiled, a little too evilly for Sam's liking.

"No that's the thing, you're so full of wisdom that I think I'll give it to Bram to do." Sam turned to Donna and grimaced.

"You see there, he's trying to send me messages, trying to outsmart me, but it's not going to happen."

Sam explained, before turning towards the door.

"Oh, and if you don't want to help fill the pockets of our director of legislative affairs then I really suggest you choose a more private location to argue!" he told them dryly, as he left the room. Donna gave Josh a puzzled look as his eyebrows flew up.

"You're director of legislative affairs is…"

"Sam I think that was a little bit of misdirected anger …"Amy argued, as she walked past the doorway, all four of them following Sam down the corridor. Donna couldn't help but laugh, and even Josh cracked a smile at the sight of Ainsley smiling a little more eagerly that usual, and CJ and Danny looking a little bit guilty for the eavesdropping. They sidled past the door, which CJ grimaced and closed gingerly.

Donna turned to look at Josh, sighing.

"I missed you." she told him simply, the truth spilling out of her mouth more freely than it had before.

Josh tilted his head contemplatively to the side.

"I missed you too." he said, taking a step closer, and giving her a small smile.

"Sorry for all the subliminals on national television." she said, grinning.

"I think I threw a few of them out myself." Josh replied, smirking. Donna scoffed, in good nature this time.

"Yeah, but yours were so confusing they needed decoder rings."

"You understood them."

" I _am _your decoder ring." she teased.

"See, you weren't _just _my assistant, you were a decoder-"

"Josh you had to ruin that."

"Yeah sorry. I know I've killed it when I'm halfway through a sente-"

This time Josh didn't get a chance to speak past half way through the sentence. Donna pressed her lips hungrily against his, and Josh's hands came up so hold her face, and her neck, brushing her hair off of her cheeks, and letting himself sink in towards her, in a state of utter disbelief.

She finally pulled away.

"That was definitely worth waiting ten years for." he whispered, his arms snaking around her waist, and his lips curving upwards. Donna grinned back.

Willing one of his hands to sacrifice holding her for just one moment, Josh reached just behind him to where Donna was pressed against the door, and turned the door knob, opening the door very quickly and then closing it again to a chorus of five cries of pain.

* * *

**I hope you liked it! So much effort to not make Amy evil, haha. Tried to be at least a little cannon! And I really wanted the last line to include something about her no longer only making money on her street corner, but noooooo, I promised I'd be nice to miss 'lets mock donna' hehe. I'm so mean to that poor character. **

**Review please everyone, it makes my day, and I try to make sure I reply to you all! **

**Toodles, Jess xXx**


End file.
